Social Capital
Any sport that can foster community on a grand scale is worth investing in and being engaged with. After all, getting Americans, especially today’s youth, out of the house, moving, and talking to one another is harder than ever. In recent decades, social isolation and polarization have been on the rise, while overall physical activity has declined. All these trends have been exacerbated by the pandemic which in turn has lowered our “Social Capital”.
Studies have found that communities with low social capital suffer higher rates of crime, lower quality of government and worse physical health than those with deeper connections. All ages today have fewer friends. Why, most discussions are not face to face, they are done through social media platforms engineered to profit off our divisions. By many measures, we live in a lonely, withdrawn, exceptionally detached nation. Remember the days of the corner coffee shop where friends meet friends to discuss the day’s business and they attempted to